SUBMITTED PHOTO
Kids at St. Louis School are served lunch as part of the provincial nutrition program, which is back this year after two months of funding uncertainty.
jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
The Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education’s nutrition program will be back up and running next week after funding uncertainties caused it to be put on hold for the first two months of the semester.
St. Francis Xavier principal Nick Gale is overseeing the program, which will provide students with free lunches at his school, St. Michael’s and St. Louis, and breakfast at Mother Teresa.
“Now that we have funding confirmed, we’re going to go and operate the program,” said Gale. “We’ve already hired some staff members and got our team lead in place, and we’re going to have lunches and breakfasts served to our students next week.”
He says he was “extremely pleased” to find out the program was funded again, which the provincial government announced prior to unveiling its budget in late-October.
At a June MHCBE board meeting, secretary treasurer Greg MacPherson predicted the $166,000 in funding would continue, but said the board was putting the program on ice until that was guaranteed.
“We’re excited that it’s back and we think it’s a good opportunity for our students to have these meals delivered and provided to them at school,” Gale said.
Gale is responsible for monitoring the program’s budget, among other managerial duties.
“Because we don’t have full-on kitchens at every school, we do a lot of the cooking at Mother Teresa and St. Louis, and then the cooks work from there and deliver the food to St. Michael’s and St. Francis,” explained Gale.
The purpose of the program isn’t only to feed students. It’s also to provide them with nutritional information.
“We know that students who are well-fed and well-nourished learn better, can self-regulate better and can manage themselves in the classroom better,” Gale said. “By providing them that opportunity in class, we’ve seen benefits in students’ behaviour and academic success.”
For the beginning of the semester, the local food bank provided brown bag lunches for MHCBE students, as they did for the public school system.
“They certainly had been filling a gap for us along the way,” said Gale.
